Also in Perth. 756sqm block and all the two-storey houses in our street have balconies at the rear of the house .
The council rules are that…

What exactly are you concerned about?
We are building the APG Drysdale (but have changed it a lot). We've just reached lock-up. So far the workmanship has been excellent. We've been…

We had to wait a long time (nearly 6 months) to get the contracts and found that extremely frustrating. In the next phase, our selection consultant was utterly horrible and…

Oh dear, that doesn't sound good! Did APG accept all the issues, i.e. will they fix them? Did you use "BSP Building Consultants" for this inspection?

Dimmer switches cannot be used with compact fluorescent light bulbs. The low voltage downlights are halogen and you can use dimmer switches with them.

I am not sure why you are "imagining" stamp duty. Stamp duty varies from state to state. Look it up for your state and no need to "imagine" anything. For…

Nothing to worry there then. But rather than constructing supports etc to get the floor level up, could you not have a couple of steps down to the (new) rumpus…

Make sure you check if your reverse-cycle air-con unit needs 3-phase power.

We're in WA as well. We have gas hot water and gas stovetop. Everything else is on electricity. We have one laptop on all day (switched off at night), reverse-cycle…

First I would check whether your garage actually has a slab (reinforced concrete). Don't know where you are, but here in Perth garages are just grano. Same colour as a…

Hehehehe ... of course I think I am building in the centre of the universe and you are out in the sticks in Armadale! …

We are building in Iluka, which is part of Joondalup council - a looooong way north from you .

$20,000 is a lot! We are building a large two-storey and our estimated site costs are $8,500 (based on builder's engineer's report).
By-the-way, site costs have hardly anything to do whether…

Ask your builder / Trevors Carpets whether they have done any showhome installations. If your builder wants you to use TC, they must have it in some of their showhomes.…

Or could be an upgrade, e.g. more tiles or more expensive tiles. We upgraded to glass splashback behind cooker. And above the sink we added a few more tiles.

Yes, I know, Sooty, you told me before. I don't want to use these two (because they got bad reviews from aother people).
I would like to know Inkhart's inspector.

Inkheart, I'd also be interested in who you appointed as a building inspectors. I am also building with APG and want an independent inspection, but have a little trouble finding…

We spent a 5-figure number at pre-start. A lot of the things we spent on were not what I would call "additions" nor would I call them "upgrades" ... These…

Depends. The new neighbour would have to submit his plans to the council. If the council then decided that he was breaching the council's regulations (e.g. re how close to…

For the kitchen, laundry, bathrooms, there should be a plan with "views" of standing inside of each of these rooms and "looking" at each wall of the room. Each of…

If your builder had added some special conditions, then he had altered it and it was no longer a standard HIA contract. If the builder alters it, I think it's…

When we were looking for a builder, I bought the Saturday edition of "The West" newspaper. In one of the supplements is a listing of current display homes. I made…

We're building a whole house not just a reno project, lol. Before we even got to the "plans" stage I did lots of research as to how much "things" cost.
When…

If it's an HIA contract, then no, you won't be able to make any changes and there is no point having a solicitor look over it. If the contract is…

It depends from council to council. Ours was with Joondalup Council and they only took 5 weeks (they also have a one-stage approval process which makes it easier).

Just read the whole thread and am sooo glad I am not the only one, lol. Our slab went down three weeks ago. Then they delivered the bricks and now…

The first wall is going up on our house. On the outside the mortar joints look "normal", i.e. the mortar appears evenly spread along/between the bricks. But on the inside…

We are building with APG. We are at the stage of bricks going up for the ground floor. Happy so far. They let us to a lot of changes; the…

Same here. Really like that colour, Amy. When I saw those photos I thought why didn't we think of that??? Our kitchen cupboards will be "pretend" wood. Now I wish…

We have wood internal doors as well. Beech wood doors with glass squares in them. The door frames are painted grey and the walls are off-white. It looks just fine.…